The armor plot
The Armor Plot is an alleged scheme put into play by Mr. Qi in an apparent attempt to get the Mafia and Yakuza to fight each other so that the Golden Elixir Triad can obtain unprecedented control over the Seattle underworld. The Daoist Connection In Daoist belief, the body contains numerous souls rather than in western belief the body only contains one. It is Daoist belief that harmony amongst these various souls of the body can bring extremely long life, if not immortality. White souls are souls within the body that seek harm. They are the souls that give dreams (which are considered bad), force temptation, and wish quick destruction of the body so that the souls can gain their freedom from the perceived prison of the body. The Armor contained numerous white souls that would often harm others who wore it, generally bringing about their death in a terrible fashion. In game The armor plot started through various intelligence reports coming in to the Yakuza and Mafia about Qi's continued search for powerful artifacts, a hobby of his. One of these artifacts was an ancient suit of golden armor from the period of the Qin Dynasty of China that had survived for centuries at the bottom of a lake on the mountain of Hengshan in what is known now as the Canton Confederation. The armor is believed to grant immortality on the battle field while cursing those not strong minded enough to control the armor itself. It is said that the armor contains within it the various "white souls" of previous users. Mr. Qi Mr. Qi separated the armor into five pieces and placed seemingly at random around the city. Information for each place was found on one of his Leuitenants, Vo, on a highly encrypted data chip. The first piece were six rings, which were kept in a safe in a ghoul infested building on the outskirts of Glow City in Redmond, kept watch by a ghoul sniper. The second was a helmet, which was discovered to be held by a commune called Andorhal in Snohomish. The third was a set of golden fangs, held by Dr. Vanessa Drake, in her office of Always Searching. The fourth was a mask kept in a vault at the bottom of one of Seattle's more successful night clubs, The Rubicon. The fifth was held by a band of Mercenaries known as The Reavers in a Z zone of Puyallup. The five pieces came together in the club, Rubicon. Where Alfonso Biggio, whom was attempting to take control of the Biggio family, wore the armor. The armor seemed to make Alfonso invincible, but a spell from Sofia easily slaughtered Alfonso as he was wearing the full set. With the death of Alfonso, the armor seemed to trigger opening an astral gate allowing spirits, known as the Shedim, pour through. These shedim seemed highly disorganized and generally fled the club seeking to grasp their new surroundings and disappearing into the Seattle metroplex. Wearing the armor, Sofia, was able to close the astral rift that was sending in the shedim. These shedim are sometimes referred to as the “white souls” by the group. After the Rubicon incident, the armor was given to the Draco Foundation under the promise that the Draco Foundation would be readying the armor for transport back to China to lay rest once again in the lake it was pulled from. The armor is said to be ready from transport January 26th of 2071. Dreams The armor produced dreams or “visions” to the group about it's past. The dream showed the only man who had seemed to wear the armor and survive it to live a long life. It was obvious that this man was a champion of the Emperor Qin and killed thousands upon thousands on the battlefield, helping the first Emperor to achieve the first Chinese Empire. The man walked away from fame and went into seclusion, apparently to the mountain of Hengshan. There he lived the life of a meditating hermit and after months if not years of ritual dumped the armor in the middle of a lake then ascended the mountain to a forest clearing where he ascended into the sky in bright beam of light as magnificent as the sun. The armor was discovered centuries later by unsuspecting locals, who knew nothing of it's power and were cursed and consumed by the souls, bringing about painful deaths. The armor made the rounds over the centuries, granting power, but also consuming life and eventually found itself in Qi's possesion. The Characteristics and Effects of the (Meta-Planar) armor During the armor plot in Seattle the armor had appeared to be waking up and becoming more magically active as the pieces were brought back together though the actual nature of their magical abilities were hard to determine. Lady Orb later informed Thomas that the armor was spread out in Seattle to place a curse on the areas that the armor inhabited. The places were carefully selected positions held by the Golden Elixir's rivals. The Golden Elixir's rivals were torn apart by the curse of the armor making it easy for the Golden Elixir to become the most powerful criminal entity in the city. However the Mafia and the Yakuza still were able to maintain a substantial foothold. Mr. Qi then decided to funnel information about the armor to the yakuza and mafia through indirect means in an attempt to get the Yakuza and the Mafia to fight over the pieces and cause the curse to finally put the nail in the coffin. However the group was able to get the armor, which had already brought Alfonso Biggio under it's control, and contain it inside the Draco Foundation who would sterilize the armor and get it ready for it's final destruction in a pond on top Mount Hengshan in China. It was in transit to China that the plane the armor was on was attacked by Dragons, sending the armor into a meta-planar rift created by an unknown third party. The effects on the group In the metaplanes the armor appeared as sanitized of the White Souls (shedim) whom had originally inhabited the armor. Amber had used the mask on a dramatic scale to fight back demons, which later caused a massive mana storm to whip across the landscape almost killing them, but claiming the lives of countless others whom were already inhabiting the city. The mask kept the imprint of Amber's intentions inside of it. When Zan, Nive, and Venus took the rings off when they left the Renraku Arcology Shutdown metaplane, the collapsed from exhaustion and terrible migraines that left them bed ridden for days. Metaplane Armor During the flight to China to dispose of the armor in the pond from which it had been originally recovered from, the flight was attacked by a fleet of dragons. The group escaped from the plane and fell into a planar rift above the Pacific Ocean that sent them into the metaplanes (a universe of unpredictable mana). In the metaplanes the armor became separated once again as individual pieces scattered across different realities. The helmet and teeth The helmet and teeth appeared in a metaplane that was a variation on the American Wild-West. Set in Utah, Teucer, Amateretsu, and Chavez, had to escape the servitude as Chinese rail workers. They discovered the fate of the helmet, which had fallen into the clutches of the Eagle spirit. The Eagle spirit was destroyed by a shedim army summoned by Father Eric and held by Lady Orb (one of Mr. Qi's Silver Thread Alchemists) and found sanctuary with The Bird Tribe. The teeth were found at a dig site of a Native American burial ground, where T-Rex had infiltrated. After claiming the teeth, Father Eric unleashed his Shedim army again, which began to tear up the country side, becoming the apparent destruction of the Bird Tribe. During this escape, Dr. Vanessa Drake was able to grab the helmet from Lady Orb's clutches. The group escaped on a train, which took them to another metaplane. The Six Rings The Six Rings were found by Zan, Nive, and Venus inside a variation of the Renraku Arcology Shutdown, which had merged itself inside of a Dante's Inferno parallel. They found the rings used by cyborgs created by Deus, which gave them awakened capabilities. The three hunted the magic cyborgs down one by one and used the rings they had recovered by each as a tool against the remaining cyborgs until they were all destroyed. The Mask and Breast Plate The Mask was used by Amber on top of a lighthouse that was part of the meta-planar canal city of Azer. On one side of the canal lived demons who would only come out at night to wreck havoc on the child gangs that controlled the other side of the canal. Amber used the mask to pacify the demons in a artful display of fire that was directed by the lighthouse to the demon side of the canal city. Rune, Sofia, Segovax, and Tia found Amber and left the lighthouse to find the breast plate, which had been kept in a city known as Khadeem, leaving the child gangs behind to fend for themselves against the demons. After reaching Khadeem, the group had to make the choice of who would help take them to destroy the armor (the armor was part of a curse that inhabited the land) and also get credit for the armor's destruction. The people of the nation of Xisus (represented by a manifestation of Seir) offered the group land and status. The people of the nation of Sorub (represented by a manifestation of Mohammed Aasar) offered the group endless amounts of money. The celestial angels (represented by the apparently real Albert Schnauss) offered the group godlike powers and the dragons (represented by a manifestation of Nive) offered the group endless knowledge. The group decided to do it themselves. Category:Events Category:Chapter 1 Category:Chapter 3